There are many common themes that can be recognized inhorrorand what makes these concepts or dynamics so popular is their success. Because horror has such a specific emotional goal — invoking fear— it has a limited number of ways, compared to other genres, to find certain success. And so it tends to stick to what works.
Among these successful tropes is the found mother, in which a mother figure is not the biological parent or even traditional image of a mother. Sometimes this looks like a monstrous creature or spirit taking in children, sometimes it’s a mothertaking in a dark and problematic child, or sometimes it takes on another form. While found father storylines are present in the genre as well, they’re less common than the found mother trope, probably to reflect how influential our mothers are in our development and outlook on life. It makes a wise choice for the horror genre because of how it strikes a nerve for everyone in the audience.
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No matter what the dynamic between a person and their mother looks like, every person has their association with mothers that come from their own maternal relationship. Whethersomeone has a great relationshipwith their mom, a bad relationship, or no relationship at all, they understand the significance of the role. This need for a maternal figure results in found mother dynamics. Meanwhile, viewers who are mothers themselves can connect to this trope through an additional perspective, often intensifying their understanding and response to found mother storylines.
Horror films and shows that rely on this trope generally use it to reflect something deeper in the story. It could use the monstrous found mother to reflect the driving strength of the maternal urge. It could show a motherwith evil habits and behaviorin charge of children, reflecting how controlling and abusive parents can inflict long-lasting harm on kids. A normal mother taking in an evil child could easily reflect the dangers of problems that come as a result of parents not paying attention to their kid’s needs. All of these examples point out how reflective and influential the role of the found mother can be.
Effectively scaring the audience is one thing, but weaving in a theme that lingers with viewers even after they’ve finished the film is a whole other level of success.The themes and roleof found mother are able to wedge their way under viewers' skins. They target sentimental emotions and make audiences uncomfortable. This effect on its own is pretty creepy, even if the specific structure or acting in the film is less impressive.
There are a multitude of shows and movies that use the found mother trope. One example is the 2013 film,Mama,in which two little girls are saved and raised by a ghostly female entity, until humans discover them and intervene. On the surface,this seems like a story where a ghostraises a pair of children to reflect her and hate humans. But as the story unravels, it proves to have a much deeper point. The story suggests that the love of a mother is so deep that she would sacrifice herself for her children, though the mother that this story follows is considered a monster by everyone but the girls.
Another example isThe Woman in Black,which follows a widowed man and his children who are haunted by the spirit of a vengeful mother.The evil entity in this filmlures the children to their deaths, reflecting how a broken mother can deflect her problems and emotions onto her children. While fathers are just as capable of causing such damage, it creates more of a contrast to have the monster be a mother. It was her maternal love that drove her to seek vengeance, but her heart seems to have been consumed by anger and revenge, and she’s lost sight of that maternal love.
The last example is actually of a recent show,Devil in Ohio,created by Netflix. In this series,a teen girl who has escaped an evil satanic cultis taken in by a psychiatrist (the found mother in this story) while awaiting a foster family. However, she creates a number of issues in her time among the psychiatrist’s family. This is an instance where the audience views the events through the eyes of the found mother, and the audience sees how she struggles to understand this girl and what happened to her.
Alternating perspectives keeps the trope interesting, because it changes where our sympathy lies. In storylines likeMamaandTheWoman in Black,audience preference tends to lean toward the children,while we fear the mother. However, in stories likeDevil in Ohio,where the mother is the one trying to hold things together, we tend to feel for her and distrust the child. Though both perspectives focus on the same character dynamics and story structures, the lens through which they view the characters' actions are adjusted accordingly to the themes of the films.
This all points out just how versatile the found mother concept is. Though it is commonly used in the horror genre, the approach and focus can bealtered to give it a fresh touch. The potential created by the many ways to look at this idea allows different creators to revisit it without it feeling old. In other words, rather than repeating the same thing, each film or series that uses the found mother trope has the chance to expand on it and add to the conversation it creates.
Just as every person’s relationship with their mother is different, the stories that follow these relationships tend to vary as well. This makes the found mother trope aprime candidate forthe horror genrefor years to come, especially with society’s growing focus on mental health and the role that parenting plays.
